Singapore visitor arrivals in Aug dip from July

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

SINGAPORE, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Visitor arrivals to Singapore in August dipped from July’s record number but climbed 18 percent from a year ago as two new casino-resorts continued to draw people, the city-state’s tourism authority said on Tuesday.

The 996,000 people who came to Singapore last month was the highest-ever recorded for August, and marked the ninth consecutive month when visitor arrivals hit a record for the month, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said in a statement.

Visitor arrivals in July jumped 24.1 percent to 1.1 million — a record high.

Singapore’s hosting of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games and the continuing strength of Asian economies also contributed to the strong growth in visitor arrivals in August, STB said.

Indonesia contributed the largest number of visitors with 165,000 in August, while China was the fastest-growing market for Singapore’s tourism industry, with visitor arrivals jumping 51 percent to 131,000.

STB’s figures do not include the thousands who cross over from Malaysia daily by land.

STB said average occupancy rate at Singapore hotels in August rose to 85 percent, a gain of 7.6 percentage points compared with a year ago, while average room rate increased by 24.7 percent to S$218 a night from a year ago.

Singapore legalised casino gaming in 2005 as part of a plan to double visitor arrivals to 17 million by 2015. Genting Singapore’s (GENS.SI) Resorts World opened its doors in February this year while Las Vegas Sands’ (LVS.N) Singapore casino started operations in April.